Constructs replacing and complexity downgrading via a generic OWL ontology transformation framework

Abstract

Many of the tools supporting the OWL ontological language face complexity problems when handling certain constructs of the language. This leads to the requirement of automatically changing the ontology, either by removing a specific type of construct or by adhering (downgrading) the ontology to a predefined OWL2 profile such as OWL2 EL. We present an approach to construct replacing and complexity downgrading that relies on transformation patterns processed by a generic ontology transformation framework. Transformation patterns allow to declaratively formulate and transparently execute axiom replacement operations. This potentially preserves derivations that would otherwise be lost due to simple removal of problematic axioms. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.